Kirjahaku

Using an interdisciplinary approach, Healing Memories analyzes the ways that Puerto Rican women authors use their literary works to challenge historical methodologies that have silenced the historical experiences of Puerto Rican women in the United States. Following Aurora Levins Morales's alternative historical methodology she calls “curandera history,” this work analyzes the literary work of authors, including Aurora Levins Morales, Nicholasa Mohr, Esmeralda Santiago, and Judith Ortiz Cofer, and the ways they create medicinal histories that not only document the experiences of migrant women but also heal the trauma of their erasure from mainstream national history. Each analytical chapter focuses on the various methods used by each author including using the literary space as an archive, reclaiming memory, and (re)writing cultural history, all through a feminist lens that centers the voices and experiences of Puerto Rican women.

Resilience follows a young Elizabeth as she recalls her journey through love, loss, tribulations and experiences that eventually lead to her most important life lesson. It begins in 1970 where as a teenager, she makes the decision to leave behind the only home she has ever known to make the trip from Guatemala to the United States. Blanca, her vivacious older sister, had been the first to immigrate to New York. She had written to her little sister, who was known to have the brains in the family, urging her to join her in New York to study for one school calendar. Elizabeth had grown up in a close knit family whose core values were based around hard work and perseverance. In those days, young girls from rural areas in Guatemala were groomed to be good wives with exceptional housekeeping skills. Elizabeth admits that housekeeping was never her strong suit. Thankfully, her mother, who had never gotten past the third grade had instilled in her children from a young age the importance of a good education. This played a key influential factor and Elizabeth was excited to learn all she could while studying in New York and then implement the skills back in her country. Finding a husband was never on the agenda but she welcomed the unexpected love. Louis pursued Elizabeth and soon their friendship grew into something more. This newfound relationship changed her initial plans and she made New York her permanent home.